2026 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Hamnet

• IMDB link: Hamnet
• Tagline: "After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss."
• My Best Picture Project

    This was a beautiful movie about Anne (Agnes) Hathaway and what it might have been like to be married to William Shakespeare. It's so much from her POV, that the subtitles referred to Will as "Husband" most of the time. In fact, his whole name is only mentioned once toward the end of the movie. 

    Funny story: once, when the movie was paused, it displayed the names of the characters and actors on screen, and we had the following conversation:

Me: Agnes is Anne Hathaway

Kivi: No, she's Jessie Buckley.

Me: No, her real name was Anne Hathaway.

Chris: (looking at me like I've got two heads) It says it right there - her name is Jessie Buckley.

Me: (realization dawning) No, no, no. Shakespeare's real-life wife was named Anne Hathaway, not to be confused with the actress who is also named Anne Hathaway.

    Like Shakespeare in Love, the movie did a wonderful job mixing in lines from their life into Shakespeare's plays - there is a lovely scene where Will stages a play for Agnes, starring their children as the three witches from Macbeth, and later words and phrases make their way into Hamlet as well.  Agnes is an herbalist, and her lists of herbs had to have inspired Ophelia, though that scene isn't shown, and during a particularly low moment for Will, you see the origins of the "to be or not to be" soliloquy.

    The acting and casting were excellent, and it had a nice, clear voice track, which is nice for my aging ears (I still turned on the subtitles because I didn't want to miss a single word due to less-familiar accents), and the visuals were lovely ... when they weren't too dark.  Too many scenes were filmed in the dark, and it was hard to see sometimes. I suspect (but don't know) that it was dark to reflect the times and lack of electric lighting, but I think that was the wrong choice.  The pacing was a little slow in the first half, but damn, the last half was spellbinding and heartbreaking.  

    It also does an excellent job depicting how people handle grief so differently. Will by channeling his pain into a tragic masterpiece, Ann/Agnes by surviving for her remaining children, fed by her rage at will, then ... forgiveness.

    Bring tissues.

(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings* out of 10 nominees):

1. Sinners (Southern gothic vampires sing the Blues; Cathy: 1, Chris: 1)
2. Bugonia (Alien-hunting conspiracy theorists; Cathy: 5, Chris: 2)
3. Train Dreams (Dreamy old logger survives ... life; Cathy: 3, Chris: 3)
4. Hamnet (The Bard's wife; Cathy: 2, Chris: 5)
5. One Battle After Another (Daddy-Daughter Revolution; Cathy: 7, Chris: 4)
6. F1: The Movie (Mesmerizing Top Gun for Formula 1 Fans; Cathy: 4, Chris: 6)
7. The Secret Agent (Strange, sweaty movie about life in fascist Brazil; Cathy: 6, Chris: 8)
8. Frankenstein (Monster-'splaning; Cathy: 9, Chris: 7)
9. Sentimental Value (Slow-paced movie about a family of actors; Cathy: 8, Chris: 9)
10. Marty Supreme (Odious ping-pong hustler no one respects; Cathy: 10, Chris: 10)